


Twilight of My Mind

by Disasteriffic_Kaz



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Case Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Soulless Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 20:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1482484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disasteriffic_Kaz/pseuds/Disasteriffic_Kaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While hunting a nest of Vampires, the Ghostfacers indirectly put the Winchesters on the radar of an 'alternative' clan of vampires bent on their deaths. Post 6x09 "Clap your hands if you believe"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note: This first chapter might…wander a bit. It's RoboSam's fault. He throws me off my game. LOL Now I know why I haven't written him before now. So…enjoy?
> 
> Do please Review once you've read. :D Every comment and vote of support helps keep me writing. Not to mention if I've pooched anything, someone can always tell me. :P

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_Tormented thoughts, they roam my soul_  
Digging holes of anguish in my mind  
Eyes of fire, wishing I were dead  
The shadows laughing all the tears I shed  
Faceless creatures crawling  
I can't take this pain  
All this struggling- oh it was in vain  
It happens in the twilight of my mind

_-Meduza: Twilight of my mind_

_**CHAPTER 1** _

Dean woke up slowly, groaning his way into a hangover and blinked bleary eyes around the motel room. He frowned when he saw the bed next to his. The blanket pulled back, the sheets mussed and the pillow with a head shaped depression in it; it looked like Sam had actually slept in it. He scowled knowing that wasn't the case. Sam didn't sleep. Sam without a soul had no need for sleep. Ever. So why did the slept in bed make him nervous? He pushed himself up as the bathroom door opened and Sam came out drying his hair.

"Morning." Sam said and gave him a fake smile.

"You actually slept?" Dean asked and gestured at the bed.

Sam shook his head. "You always look irritated when you wake up and see the neat bed. Figured if I messed it up you'd be more comfortable."

"Well that's…kind of disturbing." Dean said and climbed out of the bed. "Not that I don't appreciate the…sentiment."

"Right." Sam looked at him momentarily confused and then shook his head, done with that particular conversation. "Found us a hunt."

Dean groaned. "I need a shower then you can tell me what your over-active puppet mind got up to while I was sleeping." He stepped into the bathroom and gratefully closed the door. He'd thought having Sam be himself would be better but after the Faeries….and he had to roll his eyes at that, had showed him that no matter what he thought he _was_ more comfortable with the thing in his brother's body faking it. It helped remind him what they were fighting for; what he was fighting for. The need to see the warmth and love in Sam's eyes choked him sometimes when he looked at him. He'd once asked Castiel to take him personally into the Cage and demanded that he'd either save Sam's soul himself or die trying. The Angel had given him a pitying look and refused on the grounds that first it was impossible and second that Dean wasn't in his right mind.

He snorted and turned on the shower. Dean didn't know a single person who could claim to be in their right mind these days. They were working for the King of friggin Hell. Nothing was right with his world these days.

Sam listened to the shower turn on and then set about straightening the mess he'd made of the bed he never used. It was tiring trying to find the right balance of himself and what Dean seemed to need him to be which, honestly, was something he just could never be without his soul. He understood in a clinical sense that some of his actions had been betrayals. He had filed away a list of Dean's expressions and their meanings in categories of 'good', 'bad' and 'dangerous enough to get me dead'.

Sam had actually found this particular hunt several days ago and had been weighing his chances of Dean actually agreeing to it or beating him senseless for suggesting it. He'd finally decided Dean would just have to deal with it. There were monsters in need of killing. The bed tidied he sat at the table and ordered his notes, flipping the laptop open though he had all the particulars memorized. The notes were for Dean who chose that moment to emerge from the bathroom.

Dean glanced over and couldn't stop the smirk that tugged at his mouth. Sam surrounded by piles of research was a very familiar sight and a comforting one but better than that was the donut box and large coffee waiting for him at the table. He tossed his towel on his bed and dropped into the chair across from his brother, opening the donut box with a happy sniff of its contents.

"So, what's the hunt?" Dean bit dreamily into a jelly filled donut and sipped his coffee.

"Vampires." Sam said succinctly and waited as Dean's eyes widened and the donut froze part way to his mouth.

"Uh huh." Dean said finally and set the donut down, no longer hungry.

"Look, I know how you feel." Sam started and then rolled his eyes when Dean snorted. "Okay I don't really but I understand why you'd be…wary of taking this job. I swear Dean that will never happen again. Never. I've got my Jiminy now, remember?" Sam gave him a smile that for a moment almost looked real and Dean looked away.

"Damn right it won't." Dean muttered. He couldn't help the wash of memories that flooded him for a moment; the vampire who had turned him, the blood, the hunger and his little brother watching, just watching, letting it happen. He shook his head to clear them away and looked back. "You pimp me out again to find the nest and I swear to god, Sam. First throat I rip out is yours."

"Dean, it was a mistake." Sam raised his hands in placation. "Nothing like that is ever going to happen again."

Dean studied his face and then nodded. "Alright. What's the story?"

Sam smiled at having gotten his way without losing any blood. He much preferred reasonable Dean. "Ok, so three deaths so far." He flipped the relevant articles over to Dean. "All drained with teeth marks. There've also been a few missing cases. I figure they were taken to turn."

"Ok that's creepy." Dean said, reading the second article, then the third. "All three of these people had teeth marks in their neck _and_ their inner thighs." He smirked. "I guess if you gotta go happy."

"I've done some digging. From what I can tell it looks like a fairly small nest which is likely why they've started taking people." Sam turned the laptop around. "There are actually clear vamp kills going back for twenty years but they're picking up speed now."

"Big Daddy Vamp sent out the call." Dean said and glared down at the news articles. He understood in a way Sam never would just what the bloodsuckers were up to. "Ok. Let's get packed. We can be there by tomorrow morning if we start out now. Gives us the day to find the nest. Let's put 'em down before they make any more."

"Good plan." Sam started piling up the papers and his laptop as Dean stood and he smiled reassuringly. "This'll be an easy hunt."

"Dude! Never say that." Dean groaned and tossed a pillow at him. "What's wrong with you?" He rolled his eyes and looked skyward. "He didn't mean it. Please don't screw us on this hunt."

"Dean. Who are you talking to?" Sam asked, thoroughly confused.

"No one, Sam." Dean sighed and went back to packing up the room. Those particular words leaving a Winchester's mouth never led to good things as he had well learned over the course of his life. It was like the Fates took notice. "We are so humped."

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_-Somewhere in Wisconsin-_

"Ed? Ed! Stop messing with the camera." Harry Spangler waved an irritated hand at his friend and partner.

"Hang on. It's just…it's tilted." Ed Zeddmore righted it, checking the view screen and then stepped in front of it beside Ed. "Alright folks! Today the Ghostfacers will be teaching you about Vampires! That's right kids and we don't mean those glitter wearing, pansy saps from Twilight."

Harry smirked. "We're talking real Vampires here. Bloodsuckers you most definitely do NOT want to dream about being. None of that Anne Rice crap."

"Ok, first off, weapons." Ed stepped back and around a counter along with Harry. On the counter were arrayed various things and he smiled at the camera as he pointed them out. "Garlic! This is useless!"

"Unless you want to make their breath smell bad or something." Harry took the garlic and tossed it away. "Holy items! Sorry Ghostfacers but shoving a cross in a Vampires face is just going to piss them off."

"I know some of you are saying sunlight!" Ed shook his head and tsked. "That only works on Buffy. In reality, Vamps don't burst into flames and turn to ash. They get a little sunburned and they don't like it but it won't kill them."

"Dude. You mocked Buffy?" Harry scowled at him and Ed raised his hands.

"What? No! I mean only in relation to the real thing." Ed leaned in to whisper. "You know I'd never diss the Slayer? Come on, man. Focus."

"Right. Right, sorry. Uh…oh yeah! Dead man's blood." Harry picked up a mason jar filled with blood and grinned. "You want to slow a vampire down? This is the way. It's not going to kill them but it'll slow them down and drop them like stones."

"Yeah, they really hate this stuff." Ed chuckled. "Those douchebags the Winchesters use this a lot."

"They think they're so cool." Harry rolled his eyes. "Trust me, you ever run across the Winchesters just…"

"Flip them off and go the other way." Ed finished for him. "Dean and Sam Winchester _will_ ruin your investigation with their douchiness." Ed glared into the camera and then took a breath, pushing back the frustration. "Now, where were we?"

"How to kill a vampire." Harry picked up a stake from the table and handed it to him.

"Now here's another bit of Hollywood that will get you killed, Ghostfacers." Ed waved the stake for emphasis. "All this is gonna do is put a hole in them. It won't kill them. You want to kill a vamp you HAVE to take off its head."

"That is the only tried and true method to axe a bloodsucker. Messy but true." Harry shrugged sadly.

"Edward?" Ed's mother's voice carried down the stairs and into the cellar. "Edward honey, should I make mini pizzas for you and your friend? I've got that Fontina cheese you like!"

"Mom!" Ed shouted and slapped his face into his hand. "We're filming Mom! Come on!"

"It's ok, Ed." Harry patted his shoulder in sympathy. "We can edit that out."

"Harry." Ed turned him away from the camera and hissed in a low voice. "We're live you idiot!"

Harry whipped his head back to look at the camera and gave it a goofy grin. "Uh…oh. Crap."

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_-somewhere in Iowa-_

"We need to find the Winchesters." Vincent's low voice carried as he closed the laptop on the Ghostfacers. He turned to face his fellow vampires; his children. "It's clear that they are our biggest threat. Should they find us…" He trailed off meaningfully, running a tongue over his fangs and watched as some of his clan shivered. "We will find them first and make them regret ever crossing paths with our kind. Come my children."

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_-Somewhere else in Iowa-_

Dean eased the Impala into a space at the back of the motel they would be using. It didn't look like much but then, the town didn't look like much. "You sure they're in this town?" Dean asked of Sam as they got out.

"In it or near to it, yeah." Sam went back and waited for Dean to open the trunk then pulled out his bag. "There's a few abandoned houses and farms just outside town that would be perfect for a nest and a couple warehouses right here that are possible locations too."

Dean took out his own bag and the weapons bag and shut the trunk. He glanced up to the morning sun just peeking over the roof of the motel. "Ok, let's get set up and then we'll check out the warehouses first." He followed Sam to the room and groaned as his stomach growled. "Scratch that. Breakfast first."

Sam shrugged and opened the door on a room that had been left over from the seventies. Bright paisley wallpaper crawled across the walls, a thick curtain of beads hung in the bathroom door instead of an actual door and there was even a massive dying Spider Plant hanging in a Hemp plant-holder with its long, thin leaves trailing the floor.

"Yikes." Dean looked around and tossed his bags on the nearest bed.

"Did Hair throw up in here?" Sam walked over and twitched the beads in the bathroom door, making them tinkle together. "So, private time is going to be an issue."

"Son of a bitch." Dean rolled his eyes and pulled the salt canister from his duffel. "Let's get set up. I need food and I need to not see this room for a while. No bathroom door." He grumbled as he poured a line in the windowsill over the beds.

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Dean split up from Sam in the first warehouse against his better judgment. No matter what Sam said, part of him still had trouble trusting him where Vampires were involved. He'd shaken his head at himself and let him go off to check out the second floor while he searched the first. An hour later and they met outside with nothing for their efforts. They'd found no sign of vampires or anything in the least supernatural.

"Well this was a bust." Sam slid his machete back into its sheathe and headed for the car. "The other warehouse is only five minutes from here."

Dean nodded and delivered a parting kick to the empty warehouse. He was in the mood to kill something. "Is it too much to ask of the monsters to put up a damn 'we are here' sign once in a while?"

Sam smiled and gave him a pitying look. "Wouldn't be much of a hunt if they advertised."

Dean snarled in a bad temper and got in the Impala, the throaty growl of her engine giving him some peace as he pulled away and toward the next warehouse. He couldn't count on a lot these days but she was always there when he needed her. If Sam noticed him petting the steering wheel he wisely said nothing as they drove. Dean swore at himself silently to get it under control. He couldn't afford to be second guessing his brother on a hunt and especially not while they were in vampire territory.

"Next right." Sam told him and studied the map of the city in his lap. "Then it's just a block in. We might have to break in. I think it's gated."

"It is." Dean said as they turned on to the empty street and the long chain-link fence that flanked it into the distance. The warehouse sat off to their left behind a few smaller buildings and looking at it, Dean felt his senses tingle. "There's something in there."

"How can you know that?" Sam stared around him at the hulk of the building as they passed and scowled. "There's nothing out of place."

"Instinct, Sam." Dean said with a sure voice. "Just one of those things you don't have access to right now."

"Right." Sam nodded and rolled his eyes. "Without a soul. I have instincts."

"No you don't." Dean said with a dark laugh as he pulled up near the gate and got out. "You've got facts and figures rattling around that head of yours but no gut at all. Come on." Dean went quickly to the trunk and along with the machete he grabbed a shotgun and loaded rock salt rounds into it. He ignored the questioning look on his brother's face and handed him the other shotgun. "Better safe than sorry."

"If you say so." Sam took the gun and shut the trunk. Dean let him pick the lock on the gate and slipped inside as he pulled it open. Sam slid it shut behind them and followed his brother toward the massive warehouse. "What is it exactly your gut says is in here?"

Dean tossed an irritated look over his shoulder. "Was that sarcasm?" He went to the nearest door and gave the handle a turn, sighing when he found it locked. "I don't know, Sam. I just know there's something in here that shouldn't be." He tucked the shotgun under his arm and bent to pick the door open. "You used to know these things."

"You mean I used to feel these things." Sam retorted and silently counted in his head as Dean jimmied the lock, raising a brow as Dean opened the door a mere second short of how long Sam figured it would have taken him. "I am a better Hunter now, Dean."

"No you're not." Dean replied as he had before to this same argument. "You're a crippled Hunter, Sam. You just can't see it." He stepped inside the darkened warehouse before Sam could dredge up his usual response and took a deep breath through his nose. It smelled of wood rot from the ten and twelve foot tall stacks of pallets ahead of them. Beneath that was an odor he'd had ample years to associate with rats and he groaned softly. "I hate rats."

"You smell that?" Sam said suddenly and strode ahead of Dean softly.

"Yeah." Dean couldn't miss the oddly metallic, cloying scent of decaying meat that hung beneath everything else. "Could be an animal."

"But you don't think so." Sam nodded and skirted the first row of pallets. The warehouse looked to be full of them from what he could see with the morning sunlight coming down in dusty streamers from the skylights in the ceiling high above.

Dean shook his head and walked beside his brother down the aisle, eyes searching the gloom. He couldn't hear anything out of place and as he listened, he realized he couldn't even hear the scurrying of the rats. "It's too quiet."

They reached the end of the aisle and it split in two directions. "Split up?" Sam asked him and Dean shrugged.

"May as well. Meet in the center." Dean nodded and moved off to the right. "Don't be a hero, Sam. You find something, you come get me."

Sam nodded but said nothing as he strode away. He supposed if it were possible, he would resent the implication that he couldn't handle something on his own. He was more than capable of taking care of himself, a fact which Dean seemed determined to ignore. Sam turned another corner in the maze of pallet stacks and looked cautiously down the short aisle. As before there was nothing to see or hear.

Dean watched Sam's back vanish around a corner and turned to look back down his own aisle. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was in there, something that needed killing and every step away from Sam was making his skin crawl all the more. He suddenly felt as though he'd made a huge mistake splitting up, as though he were playing into something's hands.

"Dammit." Dean breathed and turned around to go find his brother. He jogged along the row, peering up at the top of the stacks and resisted the urge to call out for him. If something was listening he'd draw it right to him. He rounded a turn and looked down the aisle just as he heard a grunt and then the crashing of pallets toppling. Dean looked up in time to watch those next to him falling in and ducked to the ground beneath their weight as Sam's voice cried out, echoing through the warehouse.

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_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_**CHAPTER 2** _

"Son of a bitch!" Dean shouted and tried to push the pile of wooden pallets off his back. "Sam!" He gave up trying to shift the ungainly weight from his back and crawled forward instead keeping his shotgun tight in his right hand. As his head cleared the pile the sound of a shotgun blasting jerked him the rest of the way out.

"Dean?" Sam stumbled into view at the end of the toppled row and quickly climbed over the piles to pull Dean to his feet. "Ok, I bow to your gut." He rubbed absently at his neck. "There is something here."

"Ghost?" Dean said as the temperature dropped around them. He tugged Sam's hand away from his neck, scowling at the bruises beginning to come up.

"Yeah." Sam batted his hand away. "Looped a rope from something around me and yanked me back. I'm fine." He shrugged his shoulders and briefly wished pain wasn't on the short list of things he _could_ still feel.

"Odds that the stinky corpse we're smelling belongs to Caspar?" Dean said and climbed over the pallets back the way Sam had come. The temperature had yet to go back up so the ghost was still following them. He kept his shotgun ready and tried to follow his nose.

"I think it's stronger that way." Sam tapped his shoulder and pointed to their right. As he stepped in that direction the ghost reappeared, a snarl on his face. He had been a short man in life and even in death he was stooped with the remnants of a long coat hanging from bony shoulders and his stringy, gray hair flew about his head in a wild halo as he closed on them.

Dean's shotgun blasted, dissipating the spirit and he ducked quickly through where it had been floating. "Tell me you've got the salt and lighter fluid in that bag?"

Sam smiled and nodded. "Better safe than sorry you said." He adjusted the weight of the bag on his shoulder and caught up with his big brother as he turned another corner. The aisle opened into a wide space bathed in sunlight. Sam looked up to see a skylight, its glass gone and glanced down as his feet crunched through the shattered remains. In the center of the space lay a decomposing corpse atop the glass.

"Well I guess we know how he died." Dean said sadly. "Poor beggar must have been looking for a way in."

"Found one." Sam said cheerfully and shrugged when Dean glared at him. "What?"

"Just…grab the salt. Let's get this done." Dean didn't look too hard at the dead man's face or the maggots beginning to crawl from beneath his tattered long coat. Salt and burns were always so much more palatable when the body had gone to bones. He kept a wary eye on the square of pallets around them for any sign of the man's spirit while Sam liberally covered the remains in salt before digging out the lighter fluid.

A wind blew up, tearing through the warehouse and rocked Dean on his feet. "Damn he's a fast learner. Hurry it up!" The spirit swirled into being again yards away and Dean fired. "Damn!" He cursed as the wind tore the rock salt away before it could reach him. "Get a move on, Sammy!"

Sam finished soaking the corpse, briefly grateful for the stiff wind that carried the rotting odor away from him and pulled the zippo from his pocket as Dean fired again. "Head's up!" He spun the wheel and then cursed himself as it refused to light. He growled and dropped to his knees beside the corpse to shelter the lighter with his body.

"Sam, look out!" Dean ran for him against the gust of wind, ducking debris as it swirled at them. The ghost was bending over Sam's unprotected back, dead hands reaching for his throat. Dean skidded to a stop beside them and fired the shotgun into the spirits face. "Hurry up!"

"I'm trying!" Sam bent further and finally got the zippo to light. He dropped it onto the body and fell back as flames erupted up toward him. He felt Dean grab his shoulders and drag him away as the wind dropped off into nothing.

"Well that was entertaining." Dean smirked and lifted Sam to his feet as the body burned. "You singed?"

"No. Didn't get me." Sam brushed off his arms and packed away the salt, picking up his shotgun. "Your gut have something else to tell us or can we go find the Vampires now?"

"My gut's got a lot to say." Dean grumbled at him. "Come on, Pinocchio." He led the way out of the warehouse, sure there were no vampires to worry about as they wouldn't want to live with a ghost any more than they would.

Sam followed his big brother and silently admitted that Dean's gut feelings would be useful to have as a Hunter. It pricked at him that he'd had no clue the ghost was here. He shook his head. Gut feelings came with emotions and he still couldn't convince himself that he missed those, certainly not if the constant pained look on Dean's face was anything to go by. Life with a soul seemed to be nothing but one long stumble from misery to misery and he couldn't understand how that was better.

"I want lunch." Dean slipped out of the fence and went to the car, popping the trunk to toss in his gun and machete. Once Sam did the same he shut it and looked back at the warehouse. "Hope your other possibles have more to do with Vampires."

"Well that's why they're possible locations." Sam tossed back as they climbed in the car. "Even I can't be right all the time."

Dean snorted and revved the engine. "I'm gonna remind you of that later."

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"Vincent! Vincent!"

Vincent turned from the women in his arms with a bored glare. "What is it, Louis? I'm busy."

"They're here. The Winchesters." Louis panted from his run and stopped as Vincent turned to look fully at him, fangs just visible beneath his upper lip. "They're here in town now. I saw them."

Vincent smiled and turned back to the woman, a young thing hoping to join their little family and petted her hair as she purred for him. "Gather the clan. We have plans to make."

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Dean sat in the diner's big picture window plowing his way happily through a massive burger and a mountain of fries. Across from him Sam was similarly enjoying a burger and Dean frowned. He missed the days when he'd had to bully Sam to eat enough to stoke that hulk of his especially when he insisted on rabbit food half the time. It rubbed him wrong to see his brother biting into a greasy burger with relish.

"You're staring at me." Sam said suddenly and smirked when Dean jerked and looked down at his plate. "Any reason in particular or don't I want to know?"

"Just wondering what goes on in that freaky head of yours when you're not hunting things." Dean said and smiled though he didn't feel it.

"I thought you'd be more interested in the pasty white guy across the street who's been watching us for the last twenty minutes." Sam shrugged and took a swig of his beer as Dean whipped his head around.

Sure enough, Dean saw as he looked, there was a scrawny looking man who couldn't be more than twenty across the street behind a mailbox. He was doing a lousy job of being inconspicuous in trench coat, sunglasses and wide brimmed hat. While it might have gone unnoticed on a sunny, cold day…it was cloudy and at least ninety.

Dean snorted. "Maybe he wants to be spotted." He looked back at Sam. "Stay put."

"What are you gonna do?" Sam asked as Dean stood.

"I'm gonna go say hi." Dean grinned. "You're gonna keep him nice and unsuspecting watching you." Dean hooked a finger over his shoulder toward the restroom and walked away. He'd already been back there once when they arrived and knew there was a window. He stepped into the bathroom, shut the door and in moments was through the window and outside.

Sam kept eating his burger and had his head turned just enough to see their watcher out of the corner of his eye. He swiped some of the fries from his brother's plate and followed Dean in his mind, knowing roughly where he was going and how long it should take. He ticked the minutes off in his head and when he figured Dean had had enough time he tossed a twenty on the table and stood. Sam turned to the window and knocked hard then waved at the suddenly shocked man across the street.

"That's right, idiot. Keep looking at me." Sam muttered. He headed for the door just as the man turned to run and smacked face first into Dean.

"Afternoon, sunshine." Dean growled and whipped the kid around to slam against the brick wall behind him. "How you doin'?" He looked up to see Sam jogging across the street to meet him.

"L…lemme go." The young man squirmed in his grasp, pulling vainly at the hand fisted in his shirt at his neck.

Dean plucked off his sunglasses and flipped his hat to the ground then stared. "Hey, Sam. Get over here and look at this."

Sam stood so he blocked the diner's view in case anyone else should look out and then leaned in closer to the guy's face and the two white points showing from under his lip. "What the hell are those?"

"You should l..let me go or my clan…" The man started and then choked as Dean shoved him higher on the wall.

"Your 'clan'?" Dean couldn't help the lopsided smirk. "Dude, you trying to tell us you think you're a vampire?"

"If you stake me you'll pay!" He yelled and gagged again when Dean tightened his grip.

"Stake you? These." Dean reached for his mouth toward the two absurd fangs peaking from beneath his upper lip. "Are not vampire fangs you moron." Dean took hold of the false fangs and yanked them out, tossing them away. "Now what the hell are you following us for?"

"Our Patriarch…"

"Your what?" Sam asked and shoved his head into the guys' personal space. "You need to start making some sense here fast, kid."

"V…Vincent. He said w…we I mean I should f-follow you." He gulped and closed his eyes. "Please don't kill me." He said meekly.

Dean rolled his eyes and put the kids' feet back on the ground. "What's your name?"

"Louis." He said softly.

"Oh come on." Dean groaned. "What? You didn't wanna be Tom Cruise?" Louis paled but said nothing. "Ok kid here's what's gonna happen. You go back to club Twilight and tell your douchey friends to stay the hell away from us. We've got real bloodsuckers to worry about." Dean let him go and gave him a shove as he turned and ran from them.

"You don't wanna follow him?" Sam asked as Dean headed back to the diner.

"What the hell for?" Dean shook his head, disgusted. "Unless you think those idiot kids are hiding a real Vamp under their fake fangs."

"Not likely." Sam agreed and got into the Impala. He leaned back in the seat as Dean pulled away from the curb and frowned. "Why do you suppose they were following us?"

"Don't know." Dean shrugged. "Don't really care at the moment if the local Glee club's watched too much Vampire Diaries."

Sam let it go, filing it away under useless information. It didn't relate to the hunt and for once, he agreed with Dean. "Pretty sure he almost pissed himself." He smirked at Dean and got a chuckle.

"He did." Dean nodded. "Little idiot."

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They were on their third house, the sun long since set as Dean and Sam tread softly across the overgrown lawn toward the abandoned home. Clouds had drifted in early to hide the moon and they couldn't risk flashlights. Their night vision had long since adjusted and both saw well enough, each wrinkling their noses at the pungent herbs they'd rubbed themselves with to hide their scent from the Vampires. Dean reached out a hand and stopped Sam as they neared.

"Light. Second floor." Dean said softly and pointed.

Sam nodded and drew his machete as Dean did. They moved together into the deep shadow of the house. He tapped Dean's shoulder and pointed to the back of the house. Dean frowned but gave him a nod and went toward the front porch as Sam went swiftly around the back. He knew Dean was remembering their last Vampire hunt and knew as well that if he screwed up this time…little brother or not Dean would chain him up somewhere dark and deep until he could get his soul back. He'd noticed that Dean's sentimentality only went so far where he was concerned.

Sam reached the back door; a torn screen door hanging askew from its hinges. He reached for the frame to pull it aside and froze. Sam turned his head, unsure if he'd heard something move in the grass and turned quickly.

"What the hell?" Sam flinched backward as something sharp hit him in the stomach. He looked down to find a small dart sticking out of his shirt. He pulled it out and looked out across the dark field. He swayed suddenly, the ground turning beneath his feet and fell to his knees as his vision blurred and ran. "Wha…" The machete fell from his nerveless fingers as he toppled to his side and his last site was four dark, robed figures rising up from the long grass to run toward him.

Dean eased in the front door and found himself standing in a nearly empty living room with an overturned couch and little else. He took out his flashlight and turned it on, shining it around the room. With no moon there was little light. All he saw in the beam was dust and tattered drapes hanging over grime fogged windows. He hefted the machete and moved through the open door into a short hall. Stairs led up on his right, a bathroom that could have belonged out back of a gas station waited on his left and still he heard nothing. Dean walked softly down the hall and into the kitchen at the back of the house expecting to see Sam and found nothing.

"Sam?" Dean called softly and felt his nerves twitch. "Dammit." He went to the backdoor, eyes searching the empty kitchen as he went and saw nothing, not even footsteps in the dust. He carefully eased the door open, pulling it in and peered out through the remains of a screen door hanging crookedly in the frame. "Sam?"

A scuff on the floor behind him ran Dean's blood cold. He spun, machete raised and grunted in surprise at the sharp prick in his neck. A dark figure stood in the kitchen doorway with more behind him.

"Son of a bitch." Dean growled and took a step toward them. He went down to his knees with a loud thump on the aging floor boards as his head spun. He reached up and came away with a small dart in his neck. "What the hell is this?" The figures in the door, all robed moved closer to him. Dean made a token effort to throw his flashlight and took some comfort in the solid crack and short cry that followed before he fell to the floor and slipped away.

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_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

_**CHAPTER 3** _

Dean woke with a start as his face was sharply slapped. He blinked heavy eyes open to find Louis standing in front of him with a stupid grin.

"Not so scary now are ya?" Louis said. He lurched back, eyes widening in fear when Dean jerked forward against the ropes tied around his arms and chest.

"Gimme a couple minutes." Dean growled at him. "I'll show you scary."

"Uh…uh Vincent? He's awake." Louis backed away and Dean got a good look around his prison. It looked like someone's basement redone with every Hollywood Vampire cliché they could come up with. A massive inverted wooden cross hung on the wall opposite him over an altar covered with red and black candles. There were candelabras, incense burners dangling from the ceiling and the five people in the room with him all wearing ridiculous outfits Anne Rice would have envied; dyed black hair, made up white faces with deep red lips, frills and high heeled boots and in each of their mouths as they smiled or looked at him were fake fangs.

"You know you all look ridiculous right?" Dean smirked. "Your mom know you redecorated her basement?"

"Shut up, human!" The taller of them stepped forward; another young man and Dean felt sure this was the 'Vincent' Louis had told him about. He stepped to a little table where Dean's things were laid out; his Desert Eagle, knife, a syringe with dead man's blood and his machete. "However did you expect to actually kill one of us without a stake? Amateur!"

Dean laughed. "Pretty sure all I'd have to do to kill you is post a picture of this mess in your high school."

"I am the Patriarch of this Clan, Winchester." Vincent sneered at him.

"Now how in the hell do you know who we are?" Dean looked around the room again. "And where the hell is my brother? Cause I gotta warn you, you hurt him and I'm not gonna be so nice about getting out of here."

"Oh he's fine. On his way here as we speak." Vincent waved a hand airily. "My minions are bringing him as they brought you."

"Minions." Dean pushed down the resulting anger at knowing his brother had been laid out as he had. "What'd you use on us?" He ran his tongue around inside his mouth trying to swallow away the weird, metallic aftertaste.

"Ketamine." Vincent smiled, showing off his two fangs. "The father of my former life was a Vet. I picked up a few…useful skills." He went to a laptop and flipped it open. Dean watched as the screen blinked to life on a frozen image and growled.

"Son of a bitch." Dean cursed seeing the Ghostfacers image. "That's how you knew about us? I'll kill 'em."

"A wise leader follows the exploits of those dedicated to exterminating his kind." Vincent grinned.

"You stupid son of a bitch." Dean rolled his eyes. "You need to let me outta here. We both know you're not actually going to kill me and I thought you said your little peons would be here with Sam?"

"Minions!" Vincent glared at him and then looked at his watch with a frown. "Well they should have been here by now." He looked over at Louis and his other friends. "Actually, they should have been back first."

"Well why don't you CALL them and find out?" Dean tried for calm, barely suppressing the growing rage. "Now."

Vincent gave him another sneer but took a cell phone from his ridiculous velvet coat, quickly dialing and putting it to his ear. He ended up tapping his foot and then frowned. "Gabriel's not answering." His eyes shifted nervously to Dean and then he dialed another number with the same result. "No one's answering."

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Sam groaned and tried to swallow around a mouth gone to cotton. He could feel rope twined around his wrists and ankles and whatever he was lying on did lazy bed spins beneath him.

"Time to wake up, pretty boy." A hand slapped gently at his face to go along with the quiet, feminine voice. Air blew into his ear and Sam jerked his head away, finally getting his eyes open. "Oh see I just knew waiting for you to wake up was going to be worth it." An attractive red head bent over him with pale blue eyes, her long hair tickling his face. "Those blue-green eyes of yours were worth the wait, sweetheart."

"Who the hell are you?" Sam tried to shake the fuzzy feeling from his head. "And what did you dose me with?"

"Oh you got it all wrong sugar." She leaned in a licked up the side of his face, purring. "Wasn't me." She took his face in her hands and turned his head to the left. "They drugged you."

Sam saw four terrified people, all of them young in black robes struggling in the grip of what were clearly real vampires. The four in robes were like Louis, slicked black hair and little fake fangs in their mouths. Three of them were men, trying to overbalance their captors and the fourth was a pretty young blonde who stared at Sam with terrified eyes as if begging him to make it all go away.

"Should I kill them for you?" She asked playfully as she unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. "I don't know why these little kiddies wanted you so bad but I sure know why I do." She snapped open two more and lifted his shirt to peer inside. "Oh my you are hiding surprises under all these clothes."

"I don't really care what you do with them." Sam said and met her eyes. "You should know I'm going to kill you."

She laughed and patted his stomach. "Oh honey, you are gonna be fun." She turned to her vampires. "Pick three to turn. The other one is…lunch." She looked back to Sam with a smile. "You can call me Daisy."

Sam snorted. "Not exactly a name to inspire fear. You couldn't do better?"

"Like those pretentious little twats?" Daisy waved a hand at the now screaming teenagers as they were dragged away. "I'm an honest vampire, baby. Use the name I died with. So." Daisy hopped up on the table Sam was tied down to and straddled him with a grin. "What were you doing sneaking around that old house?"

"Maybe I like architecture." Sam said offhandedly and tried to roll her off. She tightened her knees around his waist and chuckled.

"Oh do that again." Daisy bent forward to sniff beneath his jaw. "You smell like food, pretty boy. Tasty food and I need a bite to eat first."

"First?" Sam craned his head trying to see if there was any way to get his hands free. He pulled and heard the ropes strain but they didn't give.

"Orders from on high, sweet meat. Got to make my little family bigger." Daisy scooted down his body and swung her legs to the floor. "I think you'd make a fine addition. I need a new mate." She grinned up at him as her fangs descended in rows from beneath her lip. "But first…I like to play with my food." Daisy bent over his waist and sank her fangs into his inner thigh without warning. The pain was tremendous and he could feel the blood pumping through his thigh and into her mouth. The pain grew and he couldn't hold back the scream that broke from his mouth as she clamped down harder.

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"Cut me down. Now." Dean's patience was at an end. "You know why we came here? We're hunting real vampires. Not this pansy crap you're screwing around with. Real bloodsuckers with real teeth that probably have my brother and your friends right now so CUT ME DOWN!" Dean bellowed it. They flinched from him, backing away but finally a young blonde woman came hesitantly forward.

"Robin what are you doing?" Vincent asked as the woman took Dean's knife from the table.

"My sister's out there too." She said to Vincent, fear in her voice. Robin went to Dean and cut the first rope around his left arm. "When you find your brother…you'll save my sister too?"

Dean rubbed his wrists once the ropes were cut and studied her face. If she was out of high school he'd be surprised. "Look, I'll do my best but I can't promise anything." He tugged the ropes away from his chest and went to the table putting his weapons back where they belonged.

"But…" Vincent stepped forward, his phone forgotten in his hand. "Vampires aren't…they aren't real man. They're just, you know, cool."

Dean turned, all the pent up anger plain on his face and sucker punched Vincent. He fell backward on the floor and then curled around his gushing nose. "That real enough for you, asshole?" Dean took his knife back from Robin and looked down at Vincent. "If my brother's dead because of you…" Dean ground out and stopped. He took a deep breath. "You don't want him to be dead."

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_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

_**CHAPTER 4** _

Dean stumbled out of the house and found himself in the middle of a perfectly ordinary middle class neighborhood lit by friendly street lights and in front of the house sat the Impala.

"Oh I'm gonna kill him." Dean turned back to glare at the house and barely resisted the urge to go back in. The thought of those idiots driving his baby…he ground his teeth and went out to the car, taking a few needed moments to make sure they hadn't dented her paint job before he got in. "Did they touch you, baby?" Dean crooned as he gunned the engine and left the house behind. The one thought on his mind now was his brother. Sam was with the Vampires. He knew it; could feel it in his bones and it drove his foot down harder on the gas pedal against his better judgment. He hoped that if they didn't have Sam where he'd last seen him they had left a trail to where they had taken him.

It took him longer than he wanted to get back to the abandoned house and he didn't bother with stealth this time. Dean floored the Impala and roared across the over grown field to the back of the house. He left the headlights running and hopped out with his machete. "Sam!" Dean called his name and went to the backdoor. He yanked the screen out of the way and kicked the back door in. "Sammy!" He was beyond stealth and went quickly through the house and the upstairs. There were signs that someone had been there recently but it was empty now and he stormed back outside to the backyard.

"Dammit." He stood on the rotted porch and looked out into the tall grass in the lights of the Impala. There was more than one trail to choose from but they all seemed to lead in the same direction. Dean pulled out his flashlight and followed them further out into the field. Thirty yards out there was a wide, flattened patch of tall grasses with more trails leading in and away. It was clear Vincent's wannabe's had been ambushed by the real thing while carrying off Sam. He followed the paths of crushed grass a little further and into the tree line. "Ok, where would they take you?"

Dean closed his eyes to bring up the image of Sam's map in his head. He placed the location of the houses Sam had chosen and realized the trails were leading toward the last house on their list. He opened his eyes and smile grimly. "Ok, Sam. I'm coming." He turned and sprinted back to the Impala knowing where he was going.

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Sam forced himself to stay conscious; refusing the powerful pull to pass out from blood loss as Daisy finally raised her head. She gave an obscene moan of pleasure, wiping his blood from the corners of her mouth and turned to look at his now pale face.

"Oh darlin' you have got to tell me what you are." Daisy's eyes were glazed and she carelessly dug her fingers into the open wound in his thigh before bringing them up before her face to lick them. "Cause your blood aint completely human, pretty boy."

"Eat me." Sam ground out through clenched teeth.

Daisy chuckled. "Just did. Maybe you missed it." She bent over his left arm and clamped her teeth into his bicep, gulping hungrily before lurching back on a happy sigh. "Oh honey, you make me forget myself. A girl could get drunk on you."

"Just…get it…over with." Sam glared up at her as well as he could with his head swimming.

Daisy smiled and leaned over his face. "Sugar, we're gonna have a long time to play." She bent in to kiss him with his own blood on her lips. Sam mustered what strength he had and jerked his head up, butting her in the forehead and sent her reeling back to fall on the floor with an angry scream.

Sam gave her a laugh as she climbed back to her feet with the help of two of her fellow Vampires. "Still wanna…keep me around?"

Daisy grabbed his head in her hands, forcing it back against the table and glared at him. "Sugar, there's only one thing I love more than blood." She leaned in again and grunted with the effort of keeping Sam from head-butting her again. "That's breaking a good, strong man like you and I am gonna enjoy breaking you apart until you're begging for my every touch."

"Not gonna happen." Sam growled against the pressure she was exerting on his skull. His eyes widened when her teeth reappeared and she bit into her own lip, blood flowing over her chin.

"You keep telling yourself that, sweet meat." Daisy pressed her mouth to his and forced her blood into him as his body thrashed and he uselessly tried to turn his head away. She straightened finally, letting him go and wiped off her chin while he spat blood. "Tie him up and toss him in a cage until he gets hungry enough."

Daisy watched while her men went to him. One of them took Sam's head by the hair. He yanked him up at an awkward angle and then slammed it back into the table until Sam's eyes rolled back. "Figured he'd want a fight if we just untied him." He told Daisy and she smiled. "You want us to tie off that bleeder?" He gestured to the still oozing wound in Sam's thigh and Daisy shook her head.

"He won't have to worry about that for long." Daisy watched as they tied his hands and feet and carried his limp body away with a small smile. "He'll be one of us soon enough…whether he likes it or not."

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Dean floored the gas, pouring on speed as the Impala roared down the empty country road. He silently begged whoever might be listening to give him enough time to reach Sam. Soul or not he wasn't ready to lose his brother again. That fear was his ever present companion coupled with the fear he couldn't even stand to look at that sooner or later Sam without a soul was going to do something so heinous…he'd have to kill him. He shook his head, pushing that thought away and glared down the road as the decaying hulk of a farmhouse and barn came into view, shadowed against the night sky.

"Hang on, Sam." Dean breathed and turned off the Impala's lights.

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A steady dripping pulled Sam from his sleep, water splattering onto his face slowly. He blinked against the moisture running into his eyes and groaned as the back of his head screamed pain at him. Worse was the gnawing ache in his thigh and left Bicep and he remembered Daisy feeding from him. He jerked his head up as he tasted blood in his mouth and thought if he had a soul, this was where he would panic. Sam ran his tongue along his upper teeth, trying to feel if there were new fangs up there waiting but felt nothing out of place.

"Ok, hasn't happened yet." Sam said softly and tried to move his arms. "Ow." He gritted his teeth, feeling the bonds tying his hands behind him and the way it pulled the open wound in his arm. He looked up to take stock and found himself in a small room, like some sort of modified animal stall with a sturdy door and a small barred window. He lay on a pile of matted, soured hay. The rotting scent tickled his nose and he slowly moved to push himself up against the wall and got a good look at his thigh. Blood still oozed from the rents in his jeans.

"Awesome." He breathed. "Just had to nick the damn artery, didn't you?" Sam worked at twisting his right wrist and after a few minutes of painful wrenching slid his hand free of the rope. He bent and untied those tying his ankles and pushed to his feet only to end up back on the floor as the room tilted, his vision tunneling in. "Not good." He'd lost more blood than he thought. Sam gritted his teeth and pulled himself up again. He didn't have time for this. He needed to get out and find Dean before he turned. He'd need the antidote and fast.

He stumbled for the door and used it to prop him up against the vertigo. Sam gave the door a shove and shook his head for the idiot who had put him in without bothering to lock the door. "I love…stupid people." He eased the door open and looked out into the hall. It was a barn. There was a row of doors just like his but no one in sight. Sam nodded at his good fortune and stumbled out using the wall for support.

As he eased past the cell next to his a face peered out at him. "Please. Help me!" She was blonde and pretty and one of the fake vampires who had snatched him. He'd seen her dragged away. Her little plastic fangs were gone, her hair in disarray and several bites were visible on her neck. "Please. I'm sorry but please get me out of here! Take me with you!"

Sam eyed her critically and shook his head. He moved past her door and ignored her pleas. He had no time for a damsel in distress and considering how they'd fed on her she was likely not in much better shape than he was. He got another twenty feet down the aisle and stopped. "Oh hell." Sam rolled his eyes and turned back to look where she was still calling after him. If Dean were to find out he'd left an innocent behind to die just because it was inconvenient he'd never understand, however faultless Sam's logic was.

He turned around and limped back to her cell. "Ok,ok just…shut up before they hear you." Sam fumbled at grasping the slide lock to pull it back. "It's your lucky day." He shoved the door open as she darted out into the hall. "Jiminy would be mad at me if I left you."

"Jiminy?" The woman asked confused.

"Never mind. Come on." Sam turned back toward the exit at the end of the hall. "If you slow me down I will leave you behind. Understand?"

She nodded with a fearful look on her face. "I get it. This is…this is our fault. I'm sorry." She put a tentative hand on his upper arm and gasped when she came away with blood. "You're bleeding."

Sam rolled his eyes again. "I noticed. What's your name?"

"Mara. I'm Mara." She moved up beside him as he slowly limped. She saw more blood on his leg, the left leg of his jeans was red with it. "You really need to do something about that."

"It'll keep." Sam told her harshly. He didn't tell her he was on a clock, that sooner or later she was going to look like food to him. She was useless enough without adding panic to the mix. "Just keep up."

In answer, Mara slipped under his right arm and pulled some of his weight onto her. "Unless you start walking faster that's not going to be a problem."

Sam let her balance him and picked up his pace. He couldn't understand why there were no guards. Where were all the vampires? They had to be around somewhere and sooner or later their luck was going to run out. "They make you drink anything? Blood?"

Mara cringed and shook her head. "No. They said…" She reached a hand up to the wounds on her neck. "They said I was food. God." She closed her eyes for a moment. "If I'd known what they were really like…"

Sam snorted. "Why would you even want to pretend you're one of those things? I really don't get it." Though he supposed he was pretending to be something he wasn't in the same way, for Dean.

"It's stupid. I get that now." Mara told him tightly and grunted as more of his weight settled on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Sam nodded and concentrated on breathing in and out. He really had lost far too much blood. He wondered if he shouldn't find some way to tie off his leg, or his arm; ran his tongue over his teeth again and still felt nothing. He glanced up at the door that seemed to be wavering along with everything else in his field of view.

"Sam?" Mara gave him a gentle shake as he started to list into her. "You gotta stay awake. I can't carry you."

"Right." Sam shook his head, trying to focus. "I'm fine."

The door in front of them creaked open suddenly and Sam braced himself to fight.

"He's usually lying when he says that." Dean said as he stepped into the barn and smiled at the girl holding up his brother. "Sam?"

"Dean." Sam didn't quite believe what he was seeing and to be honest, he felt a little drunk. "Saved the girl, Jiminy. See?"

Dean sighed and pulled the door shut behind him. "Yeah, Pinocchio. Points for being a good guy." He handed his bloody machete to the girl. "Your sister's worried about you." He could clearly see the resemblance to Robin.

"He's not doing so well." Mara told him and sighed in relief when he took his brother from her, easing him to the floor.

"What'd you do to yourself this time, Sammy?" Dean took a quick look at his arm and then the tears in his jeans and smiled grimly. "Looks like you're a few pints light." He undid his belt and yanked it out of the loops while Sam nodded. "This is gonna hurt." Dean pulled his belt beneath Sam's thigh, pulled the end through the buckle and then tightened it quickly above the still bleeding bite marks. Sam groaned and Dean batted his hand away. "Sorry, buddy." He was swallowing his own rage at finding Sam in this state and wished he hadn't given the two Vamps outside such quick deaths. Dean looked up at his brother's far too pale face and froze as fear jolted through him.

"Sam?" Dean reached up and took Sam's jaw in his hand, rubbing a thumb through the blood smeared below his mouth. "Sam." His brother blinked bleary eyes up at him. "They make you drink?" Sam nodded slowly and his eyes drifted shut again.

"Don'…feel anything." Sam managed around his dry mouth. "Feel…fine."

"Son of a bitch." Dean muttered and let his face go.

"Is that bad?" Mara knelt beside them. "He asked me the same thing but they didn't."

"Yeah." Dean took a deep breath to calm himself. "It's bad. Look…what's your name?"

"Mara." She gave him a wan smile. "You said my sister…is Robin ok?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah she's fine. Come on. We gotta get you outta here." He pulled Sam's limp body up and got him over his shoulder. "Where're the rest of your friends?"

Mara paled. "The woman, the…vampire. She told them to turn them." Tears welled in her eyes. "She had Sam tied down. She was really happy and she told the others to turn them and…and use me for f-food."

"Ok. It's gonna be ok." He slid the door back open with a quick look outside. "My car's parked out back." Dean stepped outside and went as fast as he could around the side of the barn with the girl behind until they reached the Impala. He opened the back door and dropped Sam to sit on the seat. "Get in, Mara." She scooted around them and into the back seat then took Sam's shoulders, pulling him back with her. "I gotta go take care of this now so I need you to stay with Sam." Dean fixed her with a stern glare. "You understand I'm trusting you with him." Dean pointed to the machete Mara had laid on the floor board. "Anything comes after you, you kill it. Take its head." He got Sam's legs in the car and pulled a blanket from the back window, tossing it over him. "Just stay here. Be quiet and you'll be fine." He dropped his head for a moment and looked back at her. "If Sam wakes up and…if he tries to bite you, you get out of this car and run. I'll be back soon."

"You're leaving us?" Mara asked, terrified.

"If I don't go finish this they're gonna come after all your friends." Dean said and didn't try to save her feelings. "You get it? You're on their radar now. They're going to come after you cause they're just that sick and twisted."

Mara nodded finally and picked up the machete to lay it along the back window in easy reach. "Alright. Dean?" She looked tearfully at him. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah." Dean leaned back out of the car and shut the door. He went to the trunk and opened it, taking out another machete and several syringes of dead man's blood to tuck into his pockets. He shut the trunk and looked over it to see Mara's frightened eyes watching him and the top of his brother's head.

"Here we go." Dean said softly and set off at a jog around the barn and back toward the nest with vengeance in his eyes.

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_To Be Continued…_


	5. Chapter 5

_**CHAPTER 5** _

Dean reached the front of the barn and stopped to look out at the house beyond. Lights flickered on the upper floors in windows flanked by shutters, most of which hung at odd angles through long years of disuse. He waited long minutes but saw no movement inside or outside.

"Awful damn quiet for a nest at night." Dean said softly to himself and started out across the field. He ran quickly and hoped no one looked out a window at the wrong moment. He reached the house with no alarm given and headed for the back door with his machete held low along his leg. As before there was no one outside. He reached for the door and as he did it opened. The young man in the door looked as surprised as Dean did, his jaw dropping open to reveal the row of teeth that were all too recognizable.

"Evening." Dean said and swung the machete up to pierce into the vampire's throat. Dean pulled him out onto the ground while he gurgled and took his head off with a clean swipe. "Don't go anywhere." He smiled grimly and went inside the house.

Dean cleared the first floor without finding any more and headed upstairs. Music carried down the hall from his left and he stalked silently down the corridor. It was beginning to make him nervous that he hadn't been ambushed by now. He took hold of the doorknob, turning it slowly and peeked into the room. The music pumped out of a stereo on the bedside table and a man and woman were twined on the bed, heads in the bends of each other's necks accompanied by the sound of greedy slurping. He rolled his eyes and stepped in.

They were so wrapped up in each other they didn't hear him advance on the bed. They rolled and Dean reached out with the syringe in his left hand, injecting the blood into her neck before toppling her off and swung through the man's already bloody neck as he rose up.

Dean wiped the machete blade off on the bed sheets and knelt beside her where she gasped on the floor, paralyzed by the dead blood running through her. "How about you tell me where everyone is."

She hissed at him baring red teeth, human and vampire and Dean held up a second syringe so she could see it. "How's that feel? You like that? Cause I got more." He waited until she looked away, closing her mouth. "That's a good little monster. Now, how many of you are there and where are they?"

"Seven." She wheezed. "Only seven of us Daisy…she said to make more."

Dean counted in his head. He'd taken out four already and she made five. "Where are they?"

"Daisy took them…the wannabes. She's turning them." She looked up at Dean. "You gonna let me live?"

Dean smirked. "Nope but I promise not to make you suffer anymore." He stood and, true to his word, hacked her head off in a clean stroke. Just to be safe he cleared the rest of the house and found no one else. He went back outside and ran back to the Impala with tension gripping his heart. "Vincent I hope you're not stupid enough to open the damn door." Dean said as he reached the car and opened the door to check on his brother and the girl.

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Vincent blew out the last of the candles on his altar and fished the fake fangs out of his mouth, tossing them on the table. After the things Dean had said to him and his missing friends it all felt a bit childish and ridiculous. Robin had been the worst. She'd said things to him that made him want to curl up and never come out. He didn't know how he was going to face her at school on Monday and he cringed thinking how he was working up the courage to ask her to Senior Ball.

"Didn't wanna go anyway" Vincent said softly and then jumped at the loud knock upstairs. He sighed. He didn't want to see anyone but with his parents in Europe he didn't really have a choice. "Coming!" He shouted and took off his robe, tossing that on the altar as well. He jogged up the stairs to the front door and peeked out the window. "Who is it?"

"Vincent! It's Greg, open up!"

Vincent saw his friend and frowned. "Where've you been? You didn't answer your cell earlier."

"Battery died. Come on man! Open the door!" Greg grinned widely in the window. "We lost your Winchester. Dude was huge man. Let us in."

"Us?" Vincent stood on tip toe to see better out the window and found the other missing members of his clan behind him. He knew what Dean had told him but honestly…he just didn't buy it. This made far more sense. "Ok, hang on. We gotta talk anyway." He unlocked the door and opened it to his friends. "I'm gonna end the clan, ok?"

Gary smiled again. "That's ok, man. We've got a better idea." Vincent watched in shock as a row of sharp fangs descended from beneath his lip. "Oh crap." He slammed the door shut again and ran.

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Dean opened the rear door and leaned in, staring in surprise. "What the hell's going on?"

Sam was pressed up against the opposite door, Mara in his lap and held in a head lock. "Woke up with her leaning over me." Sam tightened his hold when she tried to thrash away. "She was trying to bite me."

"You sure that's not the other way around, Sam?" Dean surreptitiously palmed one of the syringes and eased into the seat.

"I feel fine, Dean." Sam gave him a clear gaze. "Short enough quarts of blood to make my head spin but I'm not craving cheerleaders." He smirked. "Well not any more than normal. I haven't turned. She did."

"Mara?" Dean looked at the girl and saw a gleam in her eye he instantly recognized. "Well crap. They must have gotten it in her through the bites. Mara I know you're in there. Talk to me."

"Hungry." Mara said softly and tugged ineffectively at Sam's arm around her neck.

"Yeah. That's a problem." Sam hissed when she ground a hand into his thigh. "Can I kill her now?"

Dean shook his head. "Empathy, dude. Remember? She hasn't fed yet. We can still save her."

"If you want to." Sam nodded down at her. "You want to do something with her before she opens me up again?"

"Yeah, hang on." Dean backed out of the car and went around the car. He opened the trunk and went back. "Ok, pass her over." He grabbed Mara's arms as Sam let her loose and dragged her out of the back seat. She went wild throwing kicks and punches. Dean rolled her to the ground and straddled her. "You'll thank me for this later." He landed a solid punch across her jaw and watched her eyes roll back into her head before she went still.

He picked Mara up and carried to the trunk, laying her inside. Dean used the rope he kept there to tie her hands and feet and then shut the trunk on her. "Gonna have fun explaining this if we get pulled over." He said ruefully and went back to Sam. He hadn't yet put the syringe away. He studied his little brother carefully.

"Don't look at me." Sam shrugged. "She gave me her blood. I should be a drooling vampire by now."

"Show me your teeth." Dean said. "Don't argue with me. I'm tempted to just tie you up anyway. Show me."

Sam sighed but leaned forward and pulled his upper lip away from his teeth. He smiled as Dean's brows rose in surprise. "Told you. No fangs."

"Huh." Dean leaned back. "Ok, we'll figure it out later. How's the leg?"

Sam looked down. "Well the bleeding was stopped until she-bitch back there got at it." He grimaced as Dean checked the wound.

"She's a kid, Sam." Dean admonished. "She didn't ask for this."

"Did you wait until after they infected me?" Sam asked suddenly and looked up at him with a calculating glance. "I'll understand if it was payback." He gave him a smile. "It's what I would do."

"Newsflash, genius. That IS what you did and no, I didn't let it happen." Dean glared at him. "Just sit still. We're short two Vamps and I know where they've gone." He got out and shut the door then went around to the driver's side and slid in. "They're going after the rest of Louis and Mara's buddies to turn them…or eat them."

"And we care because?" Sam asked from the backseat.

"Because we're not the monsters, remember?" Dean checked him in the rearview mirror. "Saving people. Killing things. They're people Sam. We save them. That's the job."

"Yeah but…Twilight rejects man?" Sam gave him a fake grin in the mirror. "Pretty sure we don't lose karma points for letting them get eaten."

"Shut up, Sam." Dean ordered and focused on the road ahead of them. He looked up briefly to the sky. "Cass if you can hear me how about you give me a ring? It's about Sam."

"Like an Angel's going to have a clue." Sam scoffed and then rolled his eyes when Dean's phone rang.

Dean pulled it from his pocket and answered it. "Cass. We're in Iowa, Henderson Road outside…" He stopped speaking as the familiar, faint sound of rustling feathers filled the car and Castiel appeared in the passenger seat.

"Hello, Dean." Castiel said into his still open phone and looked over at him.

"Uh…hi." Dean put his phone away and studied the Angel. He always expected to see some change in him, even in his clothes and refused to admit that he found it oddly comforting when Castiel appeared as he always did. "Need you to check out Soulless boy back there. A vampire tried to turn him and for some reason he's not going blood hungry."

Castiel turned piercing blue eyes to the back seat and gazed at Sam. "He can't turn, Dean. He doesn't have a soul."

"You wanna explain that to the rest of the class?" Dean growled. "What the hell's his soul have to do with it?"

Castiel gave him a pitying look. "A human becomes a vampire when their soul is damned, turned into a vampire. As Sam has no soul he cannot become a vampire."

"So I'm immune?" Sam asked and tried to sit up straighter.

"Not exactly." Castiel turned back to Dean with a frown. "The virus is still present in his system. If his soul were to return to his body right now he would become a vampire."

"Awesome. Ok Sammy, no burning the head Vampire bitch until we get some of her blood." Dean looked at him in the rearview and saw his nod of assent. "Thanks, Cas…" Dean trailed off as the Angel had already vanished and huffed out an irritated breath. "So much for asking him if he could fix you up."

"I'm good." Sam told him and sat up straighter to prove it.

"Lucky for Mara I didn't burn the bodies back at the house. She wouldn't have a chance." Dean sped up as they neared town. "Hope she remembers which ones took a bite out of her."

Sam tore a strip from the old blanket that had been laid over him and tied around his upper thigh, leaving the belt in place. He tore a second strip and wound it around his bicep. It was still painful but the bleeding had long since stopped. Were it up to him, Mara would already be dead as just one more problem for them to worry about. He didn't begrudge Dean going after her friends. After all, if they were turned they'd just be that many more vampires to worry about. He wasn't looking forward to going through the process Dean had had to endure when he'd been cured but being a vampire would make him a slave to an appetite he had no care for.

"You with me back there, Sam?" Dean asked, seeing the faraway look in his brother's eyes.

"Yeah." Sam shifted his legs to the floor and stifled the pained groan that came with the movement. "I'm ready."

"Uh huh." Dean eyed him in the mirror but nodded. There would be at least five vampires waiting for them in Vincent's basement. He needed the backup.

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"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Vincent dashed through the house heading for the back door and skidded to a stop when he saw Gary standing outside already. "No!" He screamed and turned and ran down the basement stairs. "Weapons." He gasped as he reached the bottom, bouncing off the wall. "I need weapons." He looked upstairs. "Maybe they can't come in if I don't invite them?" There was a crashing noise of glass shattering from above and he screamed hearing footsteps pounding across the floor.

"Oh god I'm gonna die." Vincent cried as he picked up various things and discarded them, finally settling on a wooden stake. He held it with both hands in front of him as if in prayer. "Please don't let me die."

"Dying's not so bad, sugar." The woman's voice came from behind him. Vincent spun in abject terror and stabbed down at her chest with the stake. He used all his strength to drive it into her heart and then stumbled back.

"Ha!" He gave a nervous, fear filled laugh. "I killed a vampire!"

Daisy tossed her red hair out of her face and clasped a hand around the stake. "Sorry, sugar. These only work in the movies." While Vincent watched, horrified, she pulled the stake from her chest with a sickening squishing sound. "That wasn't very nice." Daisy grinned at him.

"Oh god! Oh god!" Vincent backed away and screamed in pain as Daisy flung the stake back at him to bury itself in his shoulder.

"Music to my ears. You know you and your little wannabes are just adorable." Daisy strode over to stand above him as he writhed on the floor, curling around the stake. "I can't wait to show you what being a real predator is like." She pushed him onto his back with her foot. "Now where are your other little friends, hmm?"

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"Bobby." Dean propped the phone up on his shoulder as he drove. "You know that vampire cure we got from Samuel? Yeah that one. I need you to make up two doses of the stuff." He rolled his eyes at the angry voice. "No Bobby it's not me again. It's Sam and uh…another girl." He smirked. "Yes, we're idjits. Just get it together, Bobby. Call you later." Dean snapped the phone closed and tucked it away. "He says we need to stop being so damn jeopardy friendly."

"I heard." Sam said from the back seat. "It's been too long you know. They're probably all dead by now."

"Find out soon enough." Dean pulled up in front of a tall white house and turned off the engine. "Come on, Robbie."

"That movie's older than you are." Sam commented as he climbed carefully out of the back seat. Dean reached in and pulled out the machete from the back window and gave it to him.

"You stay behind me." Dean ordered firmly. "One good kick in that leg and you're on the floor."

"I'm aware." Sam hefted the blade and glanced up at the house. "They got here first. Front door's open."

"So, kinky head vampire chick have a name?" Dean asked as they walked up the driveway.

"Daisy." Sam smirked. "If she weren't dead…"

"Dude, I don't even wanna picture that." Dean waved him off. "Not after Patchouli." He ignored the fake chuckle and strode to the front door, pushing it slowly open. "Remember, no burning."

"Yeah, yeah I know." Sam came up behind him. "Just watch your own back."

Dean turned and shoved one of the syringes into Sam's pocket and went inside. "Behind me, Sam." He heard a strident whimper coming from the basement stairs and sighed. "Dammit, Vincent."

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_To Be Continued…_


	6. Chapter 6

_**CHAPTER 6** _

"Please don't eat me." Vincent whimpered as Daisy bent over him and he screwed his eyes shut rather than look at her. "I just wanna graduate high school. Please!"

"Trust me, lover. When I'm done with you you're gonna have bigger things to worry about." Daisy patted his head, enjoying the whimper she earned but she wanted more. She wrapped her fingers around the stake still buried in his shoulder and gave it turn. She grinned as he screamed. "Music to my ears."

"I think you oughta step away from the kid now." Dean warned as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He smiled as Daisy spun to him and then frowned seeing she was alone in the basement. "Where are all your little undead friends?"

"Back soon." Daisy took a step toward him and slowed as he raised the machete to her. "I'm going to enjoy making you suffer."

"Funny. I was gonna say the same thing to you." Dean lunged out and landed a solid punch on her jaw, spinning her away. "Should never have sunk fang into my little brother, bitch." He waited for her face him again and then kicked her left knee out from under her.

"Brother?" Daisy gasped and rolled away as he tried to take her head. "I've snacked on quite a few men lately. Which one was yours?" She used her long legs to advantage and swept Dean's. He fell to the floor and barely got the machete up in time to stop her from tearing out his throat.

"Look up." Dean grunted.

Daisy gave a short scream of anger as she was pulled off of Dean and flung across the room into the wall. "You!" She yelled as she pushed herself up and saw Sam standing over her.

Sam advanced on her with his machete raised and swung. Daisy rushed ahead of the blade and tackled him to the floor in a pile as a chorus of screams sounded from upstairs. "My boys are back." She growled down into Sam's face. "You're brother's about to be in a lot of trouble, sweet meat." She dug her knee into Sam's thigh, laughing as he grunted in pain.

Dean was torn between pulling the bitch off his brother and the group of vampires and struggling teenagers coming down the stairs. "Son of a bitch! Sam! Stop screwin' around!"

Daisy forced Sam's arms to the floor and sniffed along his collar bone. "Why do you still smell like food?" Her eyes widened in shock and Sam gave her a grin.

"Guess you're not as addicting as you thought you were." Sam heaved her upward and rolled, pinning her beneath him. "Play time's over." He brought the machete over and pressed it into her neck, using all his strength to force it down and sever her head as she screamed. The blood sprayed up at him and he turned his head to avoid being blinded.

"NO!" One of the male vampires shouted and rushed into the room. Dean cut him off, bringing his machete around in a swing and sent his head to land with a wet thump beside Vincent on the floor.

"Who's next?" Dean looked at the three terrified teenagers held by their former friends and made eye contact with Robin. "We've got your sister. She's gonna be ok but now would be a good time to find a backbone."

Robin stared at him, blonde hair falling into her eyes and then she nodded as a steely look entered her eyes. She dropped her head forward and then reared back into the face of the vampire holding her. He shouted in surprise and loosed his hold. Robin, rather than run, turned and threw herself into the vampire holding her friends making them stumble into the stairs. "Get up!" She told her friends. "Run! Hurry!"

Dean waded into the pile and pulled up the vampire with his nose spouting blood. He was the last of Daisy's nest, older than the rest and he grinned as he chopped off his head. "Get the hell out of the way!" Dean yelled at the teenage boy still lying atop the others. The kid scrambled away as Robin pulled him to safety.

"You killed her!" The teenaged Vamp cried as he lunged at Dean but Sam was there to jam a syringe of dead man's blood into his neck.

Dean pulled out a syringe of his own and got the second in the leg as he tried to free himself from his fellow vampire's legs but the last gave a roar, baring his teeth and launched himself at Sam. They tumbled back into the room and Dean winced as he heard Sam's head crack into the floor. "Get off him." Dean stepped forward and took a golf swing with the machete as the vampire turned to growl at him. His head separated with that look frozen in place to roll across the floor.

"Sam?" Dean knelt by his brother, shoving the body off of him and grabbed his face. "Sam."

"Ow." Sam muttered and wrapped both hands around his pounding head while his vision swam.

"Stay there." Dean told him and rose to look at the two remaining vampires both incapacitated with the dead blood.

"Do they have to die?" Robin asked. She stood over them as Dean came up beside her. "They were our friends. Can't we do anything?"

Dean looked down at the two boys sadly. "Have you fed?" He gave both boys a nudge with his foot. "Have you fed?"

"Dave didn't wanna come quietly." Gary hissed up at him with a grin. "He tasted really good."

"Sorry, Robin." Dean put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't wanna see this, its ok. Go upstairs."

"No. No I'm ok." She went instead to kneel beside Sam.

Dean shrugged. "Time to go, boys." He made quick work of beheading both and cleaned his machete on their robes before going back to check on Vincent. "Vinnie. Not lookin' so good."

"Oh my god. Oh my god." Vincent still had his eyes shut. "Not real. Not real. Not real."

Dean shook his head and reached down. He took hold of the stake and yanked it out. Mercifully, Vincent passed out. "Idiot." Dean said but without heat. He pulled a robe from the table above them and used it to pack the wound in his shoulder. "You'll be fine, kid."

"Dean?" Robin looked over at him. "I think he's unconscious."

"Yeah, not surprised." Dean went to Robin and pulled her up. "Look. I need to bring Mara in here but…you need to stay away from her." He watched her eyes widen in fear.

"Is she…did they do this to her?" Robin asked softly, waving a weak hand around the room.

Dean nodded. "Yeah but look she hasn't fed yet. We can still save her." He watched her closely. "You can't go anywhere near her, you understand that? She's hungry right now. She may not even know you."

Robin nodded finally, firmly. "I'll be ok. I'll stay with Sam. Is that ok?"

"Yeah. Just sit tight." Dean let her kneel back down and quickly jogged back up the stairs. The other teenagers were standing around in the kitchen looking like refugees and he supposed they were. "Just go home." He told them. "It's over. They won't be coming after you and just…don't tell anyone about this." He gave them all stern looks. "No one would believe it anyway." He left them there staring at him and went out to the Impala. The neighborhood was thankfully quiet; quiet enough he could hear Mara thumping against his trunk as he neared.

Dean got in and pulled the car up next to the house before going back to the trunk. He opened it and looked down at the hissing thing staring back up at him. "Mara." Dean gave her a solid slap. "I need you to focus here." He slapped her again and she froze, eyes narrowing and her teeth receded.

"Dean." Mara gasped.

"Good girl." Dean smiled for her. "We need to know which vampire bit you so I'm gonna take you inside this house. You're gonna have a look and tell me if it's one of the guys in there." She closed her eyes and he tapped her cheek. "This is important, Mara. You gotta pick the right one or we can't fix this. Do you want to be cured?" Mara's eyes flew open and she nodded frantically. "Good, cause your sister's in there too and she needs you back."

"Robin." Mara breathed. "Take me in. Please."

"Right. Don't make me hit you again." Dean said with a smirk and picked her up out of the trunk. He held her in front of him turned away so she had no access to his juicy bits. He pushed her ahead of him into the house and was glad to see the other teens had vacated through the back door.

Sam opened his eyes again to see an attractive blonde leaning over him. "Where's Dean?"

"He's gone to get my sister." She smiled wanly. "I'm Robin. Mara's my big sister."

"Yeah. Met her. She tried to eat me." Sam tried to push himself up and didn't argue when Robin slid behind him to help.

"She's a good person." Robin said softly and then she stilled, looking up at the stairs. Dean came down them with Mara held in front of him and gave a warning glance to Robin.

"How you doing, Sammy?" Dean asked and got a nod from his brother. "Okay, Mara. Any of these guys look familiar?"

Mara's gaze however was locked on her sister and Sam, staring as she began to breathe hard and opened her mouth, vampire fangs descending. "So…hungry god I can hear them!"

"Focus, Mara!" Dean gave her a shake. "I know. You can hear their hearts beating, the blood flowing. Ignore it!" He shook her again and eased a bit when she closed her mouth.

"Sorry. Sorry." Mara shook her head and looked at the severed heads on the floor. "That one with the busted nose. He's the one who…who fed on me."

"You sure? Cause if we get this wrong…" Dean asked but Mara nodded.

"I'm sure. Just him." Mara growled low in her threat as she looked on his head. "Daisy told him to kill me but he said…he said he plans for me. I thought he meant…food."

"Ok. You did good." Dean turned her back to the stairs. "I'm gonna put you back in the trunk now. We're gonna fix this."

"Rob?" Mara craned her neck around to see her sister. "It's gonna be alright, little sister. I promise."

Robin smiled at her. "Of course it will. Someone's gotta keep me in line."

"Damn right." Mara said and then looked quickly away as she felt the hunger reasserting itself. "Get me in the trunk again. Now."

Dean nodded, finding a new respect for the sisters and quickly took her back upstairs and out to the car. He returned to the cellar with two small, glass vials. "He out again?" Dean asked and dropped beside Robin and his brother.

"Yeah. He keeps going in and out." Robin shook her head sadly. "I am so sorry about all of this. I don't even know where to start. We were so stupid!"

Dean put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I think you've paid enough at this point." He reached to Sam and brushed his long hair from his eyes, wishing again that 'his' Sammy would open his eyes and be there. "Keep an eye on him for a sec."

Robin watched as Dean blithely filled the vials with blood from Daisy and then the vampire who had fed on her sister. He marked each vial and then handed them to her. "Keep these safe." He bent and pulled Sam out of her grasp, sliding him over his shoulder. "Let's get you two out of here."

"What about Vincent?" Robin asked as she followed him.

"Is that really his name?" Dean asked and Robin chuckled.

"No. His real name's Larry." She smirked over at the unconscious boy.

"Yikes. Ok, I forgive him for Vincent." Dean smirked and started up the stairs, balancing Sam on his shoulder. "He'll be fine. I'll call 911 once we're well away."

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Dean paced the motel room, stopping periodically to drop a hand to Sam's shoulder and frown at the fever burning there. While Vampirism may not be able to get a hold in him a simple infection was another story. Bobby had told him not to look so surprised; the human mouth, even a Vampire's was a germ fun house.

"Dean, stop pacin' a hole in the carpet." Bobby growled at him. "Yer makin' the girls nervous."

Robin chuckled from her place beside Bobby. She held a book open for him as he read instructions and worked at putting together the vampirism cure. Mara was tied to a chair on the opposite side of the room; eyes closed and head down she looked to be sleeping but Dean could easily see the tension across her shoulders that said she was rigidly controlling herself every second.

"You're getting slow in your old age." Dean groused back and smiled at the dirty look his adoptive father gave him.

"I'm almost done, idjit. Better wake our boy up." Bobby went back to the disgusting looking cocktails he was brewing.

Dean bent over Sam and sighed. "He's not sleeping." He took a towel from the bowl of cold water by the bed and laid it across his forehead. The cooler temperature worked and Sam blinked up at him. "Time for your evening cocktail."

Sam sighed and slowly pushed himself up. He glanced over to Mara and raised a brow. "She eat anyone yet?"

"No, Sam." Dean stood. "You don't get to kill the vampire."

Sam shrugged. He didn't care either way really but he saw that look on his brothers' face and smiled for him. "Good. She can go back to her life. That's good."

Dean turned away, hiding the pained expression on his face and went instead to Mara. He tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "It's going to hurt. Can't stop that but you'll be you again when it's over."

"You said you did this." Mara said softly. "I can do it too." She looked up and peered under her lashes at her sister across the motel room. "For her. I'm all she's got."

Dean knelt in front of her. "Parents?"

Mara shook her head. "Car crash when we were kids. Robin was in school. I was in the car." She gave a sad smile. "I lived. They didn't."

Dean nodded. "Sucks having to raise your kid sister." He nodded to the side, toward Sam. "Raised his ass."

Mara chuckled. "He's uh…different."

"Yeah well, it's not…exactly him right now." Dean shook his head when she looked confused. "Some other time. Maybe you'll get to meet him someday. The real him."

"Ok kids." Bobby came over and sat beside Sam on the bed, handing him a mason jar. "Bottoms up, Sam."

Robin knelt in front of Mara and held her jar out. "Mara?"

"I'm ok, babe." Mara nodded. "I'm ready."

Dean watched as Robin fed her sister the potion, ready to step in if Mara's new instincts took over but she held herself in check, gulping the potion down until she could take no more and leaned her head back on a cough. He looked over and saw Sam had nearly drained his and now looked distinctly green.

"No puking, kid." Bobby warned and pushed him back against the headboard as he paled further. "That's all we got. Hold it in, son." Sam nodded and had to close his eyes to concentrate.

Mara screamed suddenly and would have doubled over if not for the ropes holding her still. Dean grabbed Robin and pulled her away when she reached for her sister. "Wait it out, Rob." He looked over at his brother's strangled cry and saw Bobby catch him as he would have rolled off the bed trying to curl in on himself. The next few minutes were hard for everyone in the room until finally the pained sounds died away and both Sam and Mara were gasping in relief. Dean released Robin to go to her sister and then went to pull his brother from Bobby's arms and prop him up again.

"Sammy?" Dean asked softly and got a weak nod.

"S'okay." Sam mumbled. "I'm good I'm just not…not gonna move fer'while."

Dean smirked and Bobby gave him a smile. "He'll be himself again…well you know what I mean."

"Dean?" Robin called him and he went to kneel in front of Mara.

"Mara? How you feeling?" Dean asked and grinned when she looked up at him with clear blue eyes. He gently pulled her upper lip up and grinned wider to see no sign of vampire fangs. "All clear." He stood and went around the chair to untie her. Once he did she fell into her sister's arms and Dean smothered a brief spurt of envy. He missed _his_ Sam.

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The next morning Dean, Sam and Bobby saw the sisters on their way after a heated argument between them and Dean. Neither woman was willing to go back to their old lives knowing what was out in the world now. They had all but begged Dean to teach them and he'd refused.

"If you're gonna be stupid about this then here." Bobby handed Mara a card with his number on it. "You need anything or you need to find the boys you call me. I'll help." He ignored the dark look Dean sent him. "And don't worry about him. He'll get over it."

"Thanks, Bobby." Mara leaned up and planted a kiss on the grizzled face. "For everything." Robin, not to be outdone took a running jump and landed a hug around his neck.

"Thank you, Bobby." Robin laughed and dropped back to the ground. "You'll be hearing from us."

Dean watched them drive away and groaned. "They're gonna end up dead, Bobby. You know that."

"Oh balls, Dean." Bobby cuffed him up the back of the head. "Yer Daddy wasn't any better when he first started out. At least they're not alone. They've got each other." He gave Dean a meaningful look. "Now, you idjits done here?"

"Almost." Dean glanced over at Sam where he leaned against the Impala, favoring his left leg. I gotta make a couple stops first." Dean gave him a lopsided grin. "I really need to leave our buddy Vincent a present for getting us into all this."

Bobby stared and then shook his head. "Boy, don't you be too hard on that kid."

Dean held up a hand. "Not gonna lay a finger on him, Bobby. Promise. Come on, Sam." He went around to the driver's side and got in. "First stop. We need a camera."

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Vincent walked into school on Monday morning a changed man. His arm was in a sling, a constant reminder of just how stupid he had been but he wore it proudly. He'd survived an attack of the undead in his own home. If he chose to forget the part where he cried and begged he consoled himself knowing no one would ever know. He smiled happily at his fellow students as they passed. As he went down the hall he heard sporadic laughter breaking out behind him but each time he turned to look they fell silent.

"Huh." Vincent turned back and kept going to the school office. "Weird." He knew the police had been to the school at some point. He hadn't even tried to explain the bodies in his house. He'd told them he had come home and been attacked and that was all he remembered. It was strange enough that they had let him be in the hospital.

More students began laughing as he passed them and he scowled. "What's so funny?" He asked a girl in his class as she looked at him and began to sputter a laugh. She shook her head and walked quickly away with a muttered 'geek' as she passed.

Vincent turned the corner, thoroughly confused and then stopped dead in his tracks. The announcement board outside the school office was covered, floor to ceiling, in pictures of his basement; his vampire den basement. The candles were lit in the pictures below the altar, the inverted cross, the robes and even close ups of his fake vampire teeth and in the center of the horrendous collage was a picture he had taken of himself weeks earlier in his vampire persona; cloak drawn dramatically over one shoulder, baring his fangs as he hissed at the camera with his hair slicked back.

"Oh…my…god." Vincent breathed as the students around him burst into laughter. He knew instantly who had done it and why and Vincent did the only thing he could do to end the humiliation. He feinted.

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_The End._


End file.
